Strong Mellow weakly opposed

Lawyers say a lot of things in defense of their clients, not all of them true. Take former state Senate Democratic Leader Robert J. Mellow's lawyers, for example.

"Mr. Mellow enjoyed wide support among his constituents and rarely faced opposition in his re-election campaigns in the last two decades of his political career," they wrote in a memo, arguing that for all his use of Senate resources to run political campaigns, he deserves no more than probation.

In one sense, that's right. Bob Mellow had wide support and was a political powerhouse at election time, but only twice in 10 elections was he unopposed and only once in his last 20 years.

He got his first break in 1966, when Republican Arthur A. Piasecki did the unthinkable. In heavily Democratic Lackawanna County, Mr. Piasecki won the 22nd Senatorial District seat by beating a Democrat. The Democrat was attorney James J. Haggerty, who only two years earlier had lost a tight election to Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Joseph M. McDade.

Mr. Haggerty was trying to replace his friend, Sen. Robert P. Casey, who had decided to run for governor. Mr. Piasecki piled up 53,325 votes to 51,161 for Mr. Haggerty.

It was the last time a Republican held the seat.

In 1970, only two years out of college, Mr. Mellow earned the Democratic Party endorsement to take on Mr. Piasecki, surprising Charles J. Volpe, who left home that night thinking the endorsement was in the bag.

Over the next nine elections, Mr. Mellow vanquished everybody he faced.

Four years later, he easily won the Democratic primary against Walter Pestinikas, 24,969 to 4,101. That fall, he whipped Republican F. Eugene Garvey, 52,431 to 29,423.

In 1978, he ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination, then defeated Republican Leona E. Lenczycka in November, 45,775 to 30,685.

The 1982 election marked the first time he ran unopposed. No one ran against him on the Democratic ballot and he won the Republican nomination with 653 write-in votes. He ran unchallenged in the fall.

The election of 1986 served up a candidacy that proved ironic years later. Unopposed in the primary election, Mr. Mellow's general election challenger was Republican Robert Castellani, the father of future County Commissioner Randy Castellani. Thirteen years later, Mr. Mellow was there when County Commissioner Joseph Corcoran introduced Randy Castellani as his running mate after Ray Alberigi retired. Mr. Mellow clobbered Robert Castellani, 58,900 to 23,048.

His Republican victim in 1990 was Donna Dunio, losing 38,900 to 25,591.

In 1994, the opponent was Edward Zitterman, the brother of former state Rep. Frank Zitterman.

Mr. Mellow had 50,734 votes, Mr. Zitterman, 23,525.

Accountant/lawyer Glenn M. Cashuric tried next after switching parties, but Mr. Mellow won the 1998 election by a 54,887 to 17,400 margin.

In 2002, Old Forge School Director Frank Scavo was Mr. Mellow's final election opponent, losing 50,274 to 22,451.

In 2006, Scranton School Director Brian Jeffers threatened to challenge Mr. Mellow, but backed off. Mr. Mellow won without opposition and with 71,141 votes, the only time in the last 20 years he was unopposed, unless his lawyers figure the opponents weren't serious enough to be considered opposition.

Lawyers have an agenda that reporters don't. If they can't get their clients acquitted, their job is to get them off with the lightest sentence possible, especially when their clients paid them $700,000.

Finally, here's a headline from a July 31, 1978, story in The Scranton Times:

"Mellow Panel Offers Strong Ethics Bill."

The story was about the drafting of the state Ethics Law by a subcommittee chaired by Mr. Mellow. In April, Mr. Mellow paid a $21,000 fine to the state Ethics Commission to resolve an ethics complaint. On Friday, he was sentenced to 16 months in prison.

Election wrap-ups

The column last week rankled Sen. Bob Casey's camp because it said his conservative Democratic base was eroding even though he won by 9 percentage points.

This week, spokesman Larry Smar asked us to point out that no Senate candidate in Pennsylvania history got more votes, more than 3 million, and Republican challenger Tom Smith spent more of his own money on his campaign than any previous candidate.

Meanwhile, as further evidence against counting out Gov. Tom Corbett for re-election, his press secretary, Kevin Harley, pointed out this week that Mr. Casey won big despite 38 percent job approval, 37 percent disapproval in the last Muhlenberg College poll before the election.

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